What are Centralized Power Station and Distributed Power Station

As carbon neutrality has become a global consensus and mission, sustainable development and low-carbon energy transformation have become a topic that the world attaches great importance to. Under the dual action of industrial policy guidance and market demand drive, the PV industry has become the fastest-growing track in renewable energy field. 

According to the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development" released in June 2022, China adheres to the path of centralized and distributed generation development, vigorously promotes the development of wind power and photovoltaic power generation base, and actively promotes the distributed development of wind power photovoltaic power generation. Today, let's learn about centralized photovoltaic and distributed photovoltaic power generation systems.

1 What are centralized power generation and distributed power generation

To understand centralized power generation and distributed power generation, it is necessary to understand photovoltaic power generation systems. Photovoltaic power generation system is a power generation system that converts solar energy into electric energy by using photovoltaic effect. According to the construction scale and concentration degree of photovoltaic power generation system, it can be divided into centralized photovoltaic power generation system and distributed photovoltaic power generation system. 

Centralized photovoltaic power generation systemrefers to photovoltaic power station intensively constructed in desert, gobi, mountain, water surface and other sites, and the obtained electric power is directly integrated into the national grid, which supply long-distance loads by connecting to the high-voltage transmission system. The application forms include large-scale ground power station, agriculture-complementary, forest-complementary, aquaculture-complementary PV project and so on. Centralized photovoltaic voltage grade is high, generally 35 KV or 110 KV for grid connection. Which characterized by large occupied area, long conveying distance, large investment and long construction period.

Distributed photovoltaic power generation system refers to a small photovoltaic power generation and supply system which is arranged on a user site or near a power utilization site. The distributed photovoltaic power generation system is generally built on household roof, factory roof, vegetable greenhouse and other places. It can be used for power generation, grid connection, conversion and use nearby, and can solve the problem of power loss in the process of voltage boosting and long-distance transmission. The distributed photovoltaic voltage level is low, and is generally 380 V voltage grid connections. Distributed photovoltaic has the characteristics of small occupied area, short conveying distance, small investment and short construction period.

2 What are the differences between Industrial&Commercial and household PV in distributed projects?

According to whether the investment subject of distributed photovoltaic projects is a natural person or an enterprise, distributed photovoltaic projects can be divided into household photovoltaic projects and industrial and commercial distributed photovoltaic power generation projects.

Household photovoltaic project: it is a household natural person distributed photovoltaic project built by the proprietor. The household photovoltaic system is generally installed on the roof of a family residence or in a courtyard, which can meet the owner's own power demand, save the power consumption cost, and create economic benefits by "connecting the surplus power to the grid". Meanwhile, the roof module can shield sunlight, form a heat insulation layer with the roof, reduce the room temperature, and play a role of protecting the environment while reducing the energy consumption.

Industrial and Commercial distributed photovoltaic power generation project: refers to all kinds of distributed photovoltaic power generation projects other than household photovoltaic power generation with single-point grid-connected installed capacity less than 6 MW. Industrial and commercial distributed power stations are generally installed on the roofs of industrial and commercial buildings such as industrial factories, commercial buildings and municipal buildings. It has the characteristics of on-site development, nearby consumption, low investment cost, fast construction period and the like. The photovoltaic module is installed on the roof of the industrial and commercial enterprise, can play a role of heat insulation, moisture resistance and heat preservation, prolongs the service life of the roof and increases the aesthetic measure.

3 Prospects for the trend of centralized and distributed development in China

The photovoltaic power generation in China has gradually changed from the former centralized large-scale ground power station to the parallel development pattern of centralized photovoltaic power generation and distributed photovoltaic power generation. According to the data of National Energy Administration, the newly installed capacity of domestic photovoltaic increased by 87.41 GW in 2022, and the installed capacity of distributed photovoltaic in 2022 was 51.11 GW, rating for 58.5%, while that of centralized photovoltaic was 41.5%. According to the prediction of Bohua Wang, Honorary Chairman of China Photovoltaic Industry Association, in 2023, China's newly-increased photovoltaic capacity is conservatively predicted to be 95 GW, and the optimistic forecast is 120 GW.

In 2022, due to the continuous high price of photovoltaic industrial chain, the construction of some large-scale photovoltaic projects has slowed down, and the installed demand of centralized photovoltaic power station was restrained. However, with the promotion of the goal of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality", the descending of the cost of photovoltaic industry chain and the comprehensive construction of mega wind and solar power base, the domestic centralized ground power station is expected to increase in capacity, and the speed of increased installed capacity of centralized ground power station may exceed distributed power station in the whole year.

As for the distributed power station, with the comprehensive implementation of the county-wide promotion policy all over the country and the influence of subsidy incentive factors, the household distributed photovoltaic installation has received a large-scale increase. Compared with the ground power station, distributed photovoltaic has the advantage of natural consumption, and the integration and development of superimposed "PV+" application scenarios have a huge and broad prospect. Under the background of rising power consumption cost, continuous shortage of power supply, and the gradual maturity of distributed business model, the potential of distributed application is huge.

As the main force of new energy, the photovoltaic industry will surely carry the banner of low-carbon transformation and sustainable development. The representatives of enterprises in the field of PV industry subdivision shall take the goal of “carbon peak and carbon neutral” as the vision, concentrate on development and cooperate with each other to build a higher-level clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system.